High speed embroidering process and needle therefor



Aug. 22, 1967 TOSHIAKI INUI HIGH SPEED EMBROIDERING PROCESS AND NEEDLE THEREFOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 8, 1964 INVENTOR:

ATTORNEY.

HIGH SPEED I BMBROIDERING PROCESS AND NEEDLE THEREFOR Filed Dec. 8, 1964 Aug. 22, 1967 TOSHIAKI lNUl 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,336,888 HIGH SPEED EMBRUEDERKNG PlltfiCESfi AND NEEDLE THEREFOR Toshiaki linni, 86 S-chome, Seirimecho, Iotoku, Usaka, Japan Filed Dec. 8, 1964, Ser. No. 416,778 Claims priority, application Japan, May 19, 1964,

1 Claim. (Cl. 112-198) This invention relates to a machine for embroidering figures of complicated and multi-color patterns at a high speed.

In usual embroidery, for example with an embroidering lace machine, a piece of cloth is embroidered as the upper thread which is taken up on a small bobbin (30-40 mm. in diameter and 100 mm. in length) and given a predetermined tension by a tension adjuster and a weight is fed to a needle, which is held opposite to the right side of a piece of cloth cut to a length of or m. and stretched widthwise vertically and lengthwise laterally on a frame, with a small shuttle (about 52 mm. long) containing about 2 grams of under thread disposed on the wrong side of the cloth, so that the shuttle carrying under thread is allowed to pass through each loop of upper thread formed by each stroke of the needle through the cloth, while the upper thread is secured by the under thread at the wrong side of the cloth, thereby stitching the right side of the cloth and accomplishing the embroidery. In this ordinary process, as described above, each needle requires a separate bobbin to supply the upper thread and a shuttle to feed the under thread. Hence, in an embroidering machine of conventional type in which is used from 200 to 700 needles per unit, the bobbins and shuttles must inevitably be of reduced sizes with extremely limited amounts of thread to be fed at a time. This, in turn, necessitates frequent intermission of operation for exchange and knotting of threads. Exchange of a large number of bobbins or threads taken up requires much labor and time, and affects the overall operational efficiency. In addition, the spacing of needles in the ordinary machine cannot be narrowed down for structural reason, and therefore, in embroidering small patterns, needles must be moved forward to adjoining patterns for stitching to a further disadvantage in operational efficiency.

The present invention is directed to overcoming the above disadvantages by accomplishing embroidery at a high speed without the need of under thread and by the use of an embroidering needle which consists of a combination of a hook and tongue which reciprocate with respect to each other.

This invention is concerned with a high speed embroidering machine which comprises arranging an embroidering needle which has a hook and is enabled to move forward and backward piercing through a piece of cloth held movably in the vertical and lateral directions, on the right side of said cloth, while holding one or a plurality of guides which are movable in the vertical and lateral directions, on the wrong side of the cloth opposite to the needle, allowing the needle to pierce through the cloth while hooking the thread which is fed from a bobbin through a tension means, on the needle by means of the guides, pulling the needle off from the cloth so as to form a loop of the thread, shifting the cloth position, repeating the above procedure with the thread passed through the first loop and pulled off thereby to form another loop, whereby the embroidery is carried on without any under thread but with a single length of thread doubled at each stitch on the right side of the cloth. The invention is also concerned with an embroidering needle capable of embroidering a material without any under thread but with a single length of thread, comprising either a hooked stem receiving a tongued sliding stick or a tongued stem receiving a hooked sliding stick, provided in such a manner that the stem and sliding stick are capable of moving in and out independently of each other in the axial direction, so that the hooked stem or sliding stick alone is moved for ward as the needle advances, and immediately after the thread has been hooked the tongued sliding stick or stem is caused to follow to bring the tongue into contact with the hook, and the tongue and hook are together moved backward.

Now an embodiment of the invention will be described hereunder with reference to the appended drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an ordinary process of embroidering;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the embroidering process according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a front view and side view of an embroidering needle which is a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 3; and

FIGS. SA-SG are diagrams illustrating the process of embroidering according to the invention.

In usual embroidery, for example with an embroidering lace machine, a piece of cloth is embroidered as shown in FIG. 1, as the upper thread 24 which is taken up on a small bobbin 21 (30-40 mm. in diameter and 10 mm. in length) and which is given a predetermined tension by a tension adjuster 22 and a weight 23 is fed to a needle 25, which is held opposite to the right side of a piece of cloth 26 cut to a length of 10 or 15 m. and stretched widthwise vertically and lengthwise laterally on a frame 29, with a small shuttle 27 (about 52 mm. long) containing about 2 grams of under thread 2% disposed on the wrong side of the cloth, so that the shuttle carrying: under thread is allowed to pass through each loop of upper thread formed by each stroke of the needle through the cloth, while the upper thread is secured by the under thread on the wrong side of the cloth, thereby stitching the right side of the cloth and accomplishing the embroidery. In this ordinary process, as described above, each needle requires a separate bobbin to supply the upper thread and a shuttle to feed the under thread. Hence, in an embroidering machine of conventional type in which is-used from 200 to 700 needles per unit, the bobbins and shuttles must inevitably be of reduced sizes with extremely limited amounts of thread to be fed at a time. This, in turn, necessitates frequent intermission of operation for exchange and knotting of threads. Exchange of a large number of bobbins or threads taken up requires much labor and time, and affects the overall operational efficiency. In addition, the spacing of needles in the ordinary machine cannot be narrowed down for structural reasons, and therefore, in embroidering small patterns, needles must be moved forward to adjoining patterns for stitching to a further disadvantage in operational efficiency.

Referring to FIG. 2, in accordance with the present invention an embroidering needle 2 is horizontally held movably to and fro, on the right side of a piece of cloth 1 vertically supported swingably in the vertical and lateral directions as desired. The needle 2 consists of a sliding stick 6 having a tongue 5 fitted into a stem 4 provided with a hook 3, as shown in FIG. 3, said hook 3 and said tongue 5 being so arranged that the free ends of the two can be brought into contact with each other. The stem 4 and the sliding stick 6 are equipped with fixing means 9 and 10, each provided with a fixing hole 7 and a fixing positioning projection 8. The fixing means 9 and 10 are fixed to supporting means 13 and 14 which are forced forward and backward by means of cams 11 and 12, re-

spectively. Hence, the hook 3 and tongue 5 of the needle 2 are caused to move independently of each other through diiferent revolutions of the cams Ill and 1 .2. On the wrong side of the cloth, a guide or a plurality of guides 15 are held opposite to the needle 2. The guide 15 is fixed to a means (not shown) which is moved vertically and laterally by another mechanism. A length of embroidering thread 19 taken up on a bobbin 16 and supplied by an automatic feeder consisting of a tension bar 17 and a tension pickup 18 is allowed to run through a hole provided at the tip of the guide 15. Instead, it a plurality of guides 15 are arranged vertically opposite to a single needle 2, then threads of different colors may be passed through the guide holes. At this time, the guides are swingable in the lateral and vertical directions, and the needle and guides are caused to make sinusoidal movements by means of cams (not shown). The needle may be selectively threaded at a predetermined time with a thread of a desired color. If necessary, plural lengths of thread may be passed through the needle.

The present invention makes embroidery possible of being performed by the mechanism above illustrated. To be precise, embroidery is carried out as shown in FIG. 5. The needle 2 pierces the cloth and the guide 15 moves in an overlapping motion (see FIG. 5B), and as the thread 19 is seized by the hook 3 (FIG. 5A), the sliding stick 6 moves forward to bring the tongue 5 into contact with the hook to form the eye for the thread. Thereupon the needle whose hook is threaded is ready to be pulled away from the cloth, and the needle is then withdrawn (FIG. 5C). Next, the cloth is shifted by a swing (FIG. 5D) and the tongue 5 of the needle withdraws; immediately the needle pierces through the cloth again, this time slipping the already formed loop 26) around the stem. As the thread is seized again for forming another loop (FIG. 5B) and the needle is pulled off in the same manner as above, the thread is drawn out through the loop 2t) so formed (FIG. 56). By the repetition of the above procedure, the right side of the cloth is embroidered with the thread doubled at each stitch. Similarly, a plurality of guides may be used and the single needle may be threaded at the same time with plural lengths of threads, when the cloth is embroidered with threads double in number of lengths for each stitch. Also, multi-color embroidery is made possible by following the above procedure, arranging the guides for movement in the vertical direction in such a manner that only the desired guide or guides are used at the desired time so as to permit thread of desired color to be hooked. By selecting a suitable movement of the guide group, figures of multi-color and delicate patterns can be embroidered.

Because of the mechanism and procedure described hereinabove, the machine of the invention is characterized by high speed embroidery as compared with conventional methods. For example, in the case of an ordinary embroidering machine is used a shuttle containing under thread, hence the embroidering speed is limited by the inertia of the shuttle in motion. Contrary to this, the machine of the invention requires a single length of thread which combines both upper and under threads, and dispenses with the shuttle, hence there is no possibility that the embroidering efiiciency is affected by the inertia of a shuttle. The embroidering speed is further increased because the hook and tongue are brought into or out of contact forcibly by cams and other means. Furthermore, in the ordinary process, upper and under threads come out, one each, per stitch, whereas, according to the invention, two lengths of thread are brought forth on both right and wrong sides of cloth at each stitch, thus making it possible to accomplish an effect of two ordinary stitches by a single stitching motion. This means that the apparatus of the invention can reduce the stitching operation to a half of the ordinary stitching Work, with the same running velocity of the machine and with the same embroidering effect. Hence, the production will be doubled and the embroidering cost cut down considerably.

According to a conventional mechanical embroidering process, each needle requires an independent bobbin and shuttle, hence an independent tension adjusting means. T his complicates the whole structure of the embroidering machine, and, because the spacing of needles are considerably widened and, consequently, because the bobbins and shuttle have to be reduced in size, the amount of thread fed for each stitching is limited. For that reason, unevenness of tension tends to develop among the lengths of thread used, making the product ununiform in quality. Moreover, when figures of small patterns are to be embroidered, the stitching must be carried on by shifting the cloth from one pattern to another, at a great disadvantage in operational efiiciency.

The invention, by contrast, calls for a relatively simplified apparatus which is equipped with a single automatic thread feeding means for all of the needles. Therefore, all the threads are fed under the same tension, precluding the possibility of uneven tension among threads, and the whole figures of patterns can be embroidered uniformly and finely. In addition, the simplified structure of the invention makes the spacing of needles possible of being shortened accordingly. Thus, when figures of small patterns are to be embroidered on a cloth, it is possible to embroider the figures in the same row at the same time by inserting among the original needles a sufficient number of additional needles for said patterns, instead of shifting the cloth laterally as in a conventional machine. In the cases shown, for example, each of the needles of an ordinary machine embroiders a row of four small figures successively sidewise and then moves down to the lower row of figures, whereas the needles according to the invention embroider all the figures of same pattern simultaneously, and then move down to the lower row of figures, thus attaining a four-fold increase in the efficiency. A further advantage derivable from the method of the invention is that the trouble of frequently replacing the pieces of cloth can be eliminated because, whereas the cloth is cut to desired lengths for the ordinary method, themethod of the invention does not need cutting but can use a roll of lengthy cloth, which is vertically unrolled in succession in the longitudinal direction, for the embroidering purpose.

As will be understood from the foregoing description, the present invention is highly valuable for its industrial significance, in that it carries out high speed embroidering by means of special needles wherein a hook and a tongue move with respect to each other, without the use of under thread but with a single length of thread, said thread being doubled on the right side of the cloth at each stitch, thereby redoubling the operating efiiciency and permitting the machine to be simplified in structure.

What is claimed is:

In a high speed embroidering machine, having means for suspending and moving a piece of cloth and at one side of said cloth a guide adapted to be moved and to dis pense a tensioned thread fed from a bobbin, the combination of an embroidering needle adapted in its retracted position to be adjacent the other side of said cloth and being oppositely movable longitudinally thereby piercing said cloth when moving in one direction to a projected position and, respectively, Withdrawing from said cloth when moving in the opposite direction to said retracted position, said needle comprising an elongated hollow stem movable in said directions, a hook formed near one of the ends of said stem facing said other side of said cloth in the retracted needle position,

a sliding member oppositely telescopically slidable in said stem and being movable in said directions with said stem and, respectively, relative thereto between a hook closing station and a withdrawn station in which the hook is opened and including a tongue first cam and cam follower means operating said stern in said directions and second cam and cam follower means operating said sliding member in said directions independently of said first cam and cam follower means though in timed relationship relative thereto so that the eye will be open throughout at least a portion of the movement of the needle in the one direction includher will be moved in the opposite direction withdrawing the hook from the cloth with the thread in the eye, subsequently said cloth will be moved, thereafter said sliding member will be moved to the Withdrawn tongue position clearing the path of the thread from said eye and the stem will again be moved in said one direction permitting the thread to slide out of the hook to form a loop on the outside of the stem, said hook free from the thread piercing said cloth and said cycle will be repeated and each succeeding loop will be formed inside the preceding loop.

References Cited ing the passage of the hook through the cloth and UNITED STATES PATENTS closed throughout at least a portion of the move- 15 ment of the needle in the opposite direction includ- 1 i ing the passage of the hook through the cloth, 2812734 11/1957 95 5 1 2 whereby at the start of the cycle said stem will first 66 1 1C ar 5 1 be moved for the hook to pierce said cloth and said 5/ 959 Felton 112*795 hook will be adapted to engage in the projected posi- 20 32O7107 9/1965 Pena 112 154 X tion said thread from said guide while the tongue is in the withdrawn station relative to said stem, and thereafter the tongue will be moved to the closing position and the stem together With the sliding mem- JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner. R. I. SCANLAN, 111., Examiner. 

